Audio description refers to a narration track aimed at blind and visually impaired users of visual media, including television, film, dance, opera and visual arts.

In the case of television, a special audio track is built into the broadcast programme that runs alongside the normal soundtrack, in which a narrator describes what is happening on the screen. It will be available through TVNZ's digital channels in 2011.

Over 75,000 New Zealanders have a sight limitation that cannot be corrected by glasses or contact lenses and who are unable to clearly see what is happening on screen.

"This service is as important to vision impaired people as captioning services have been to people with hearing impairments," noted Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman.

The Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand welcomed the announcement. "We've been waiting many years for audio description," said National President Clive Lansink. "Now the technology is finally here, it's fantastic that NZ On Air and TVNZ have been able to work together to develop this service. Television plays a huge part in people's lives and now it is possible for the television industry to include us more in their audience."

The Facebook page offers a place to talk to the community about upcoming films, for the community to talk to each other and also to raise the profile of the service.

"It was set up as a way to communicate directly with the deaf and hearing-impaired and be able to send them up-to-date date info about what's showing and what's coming with Captions," says Karen Cafe, who does the programming and communications for Captioned Movies NZ. She plans to add competitions and interesting editorial on the films. "The page could evolve into a sort of film club."

Open Captions look similar to subtitles on foreign language films, but subtitles assume the viewer can hear but can't understand the language or accent and are therefore only concerned with dialogue and some on screen text.

Captions describe all significant audio content, including non-speech information such as the identity of speakers, their manner of speaking, music and sound effects.

The service was prompted by a complaint made to the Human Rights Commission in December 2001, regarding lack of captions in movies.

As a result a working party of representatives from the Motion Pictures Distributors Association, Motion Pictures Distributors and Exhibitors Association, Deaf Association of New Zealand, Hearing Association and Captioning Access New Zealand was set up in 2003 to bring captioned movies into New Zealand, facilitated by the Commission.

You can become a fan of Captioned Movies NZ online.

This international conference is dedicated to exploring investigative journalism and documentary techniques, methodologies and technologies of critical value to public interest issues. The conference hopes to identify and support journalists, photographers and filmmakers facing contemporary pressures and obstacles and establish a supportive group dedicated to investigative journalism in NZ.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times and a leading Asia-Pacific investigative journalist, and Professor Wendy Bacon, director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.

Papers and presentations (commentaries) from the conference will be considered for publication in a double blind peer-reviewed special edition of the Pacific Journalism Review in May 2011. Papers not selected for publication will be published as part of the conference proceedings.

The conference will be held at AUT University in Auckland, from 4-5 December 2010. For more information about the conference go to the Creative Industries Research Institute website.

An integral part of the Games, the three-day human rights conference will be a safe place for advocates to explore current human rights issues, including language, culture and tradition, in the region.

Expressions of interest are sought from people who have proposals to contribute to the conference. This could include showcasing work, organising a presentation, or being part of a panel discussion. Proposals are due by 30 September 2010. For more information, go to the Asia Pacific OutGames website.

The New Zealand Human Rights Commission is supporting the conference and will be participating and running a forum on making human rights a reality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, takatāpui, fa'afafine, trans and intersex people. This forum is based on the Yogyakarta Principles, a universal guide to sexual orientation and gender identity human rights.

To register for the forum, first register for the conference and then contact Naomi Taylor at the Human Rights Commission saying you are interested in the Commission's forum. You can also register for OutGames email updates on the Conference website.

This is a unique opportunity to meet people working in human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity in the Asia Pacific region. Come along and take part! We hope to see you there.

enior lecturer in the departments of Māori Studies and Film, Television and Media Studies at Auckland University, has delivered a lecture on the lack of Māori voices in mainstream news bulletins. A transcript of this lecture, "A question of balance", has now been published in the NZ Herald and can be read online.

There are two sessions that will be of particular interest to the media:

• "The Media and Religion" will be hosted by Victoria University Religious Studies Programme. Panelists include Professor Paul Morris of the Victoria University Religious Studies Programme, Professor Jim Tully of Canterbury University, Tayyaba Khan, David Zwartz, Lyndsay Freer, and Brian Pauling from the NZ Broadcasting School.
• "Social Media for Social Change" will be hosted by the Human Rights Commission. Earlier this year, digital specialist Mia Northrop organised Vindaloo against Violence, a peaceful protest against racism that involved 17,000 protesters at over 400 restaurants, workplaces, schools and universities across Australia and the world. Mia will introduce participants to social media sites and tools that can be used to engage new audiences about diversity and human rights.

There is no charge for weekend workshops or single forums; however attendance on Monday 23 August is $50 for the day. Register NOW!

To be eligible, journalists need to be working in the NZ news media, have less than five years' experience and are writing stories on any Asia-related topics.

The winner of the top prize will receive a $4000 grant from the Asia:NZ Foundation to support travel to an Asian news outlet to further his or her knowledge and experience.

These awards, now in their third year, are being run by Whitireia Journalism School in Wellington in conjunction with the Asia:NZ Foundation, the Human Rights Commission and the Communications and Media Industry Training Organisation.

The inaugural winner of the awards was Catherine Wellington of the Dunedin Star community newspaper, for the paper's special edition on ethnic minority communities in Otago. Last year's top entry came from Pacific affairs reporter for TV One, Adrian Stevanon.

Entries must be received by Friday 12 November 2010 and judging will take place in early December. For more information contact Journalism Programme Manager, Jim Tucker.

The debate pitted public relations practitioners against journalists, with the journalists arguing the moot - that New Zealand media created more heat than light on human rights in New Zealand.

The journalist team included blogger and broadcaster Martyn 'Bomber' Bradbury, television and radio personality Wallace Chapman and postgraduate journalism student, Josh Gale.

Bradbury argued that the media were driven by the mandate that "if it bleeds it leads", which didn't leave much space for human rights issues, and treated readers more like consumers than citizens.

Both Chapman and Gale criticised the local media for its coverage of war and the New Zealand involvement in military occupations, arguing that events were either ignored or gave too much emphasise to the voices of power. PR, they argued, was implicated in "manufacturing consent". "New Zealand media prefers cosying up to power," argued Gale.

The PR practitioners who argued against the moot included Jane Sweeney, CEO of Sweeney Vesty, Carrick Graham, managing director of Facilitate Communications and PR student, Robert Steven.

They argued that the journalists had an "old-fashioned" view of media and that the proliferation of digital media allows for such a breadth of commentary and reporting that the truth would, eventually, come out.

"We have a rich media and we should celebrate it more," said Sweeney. "We have every chance that human rights will be fairer in the future."

While Sweeney and her team said they "sexed things up" to promote a story, they were in the business of promoting debate, and shedding light rather than heat. "We believe in the three Fs," said Vesty. "F*** up, fess up and front up".

The debate was won by the journalists.